A recording sheet comprising a support made mainly of a bleached chemical pulp and, formed on the surface thereof, a coating layer selected from a thermosensitive recording layer, a coating layer for laser printing, and a thermal transfer image-receiving layer is known, and has been put to practical use.
The above recording sheet is disadvantageous in that it has inferior water-proofness and inferior high-speed printability due to the support made of the bleached chemical pulp having a rough surface. In view of the above, a recording sheet has been proposed employing as a support a synthetic paper consisting of a microporous stretched resin film. Another recording sheet has been proposed employing as a support a laminate of the above synthetic paper with either a paper made mainly of a bleached chemical pulp or a biaxially stretched poly(ethylene terephthalate) film. These proposed recording sheets have been put to practical use (see JP-B-7-20739 (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication"), JP-A-63-222891 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), JP-B-4-60437, JP-A-1-197763, JP-A-4-119879, JP-A-4-219277, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,778,782, 4,971,950 and 5,306,690).
On the other hand, the technology of ink-jet color printers is progressing in which color hard copies are produced at a high speed by ink-jet recording. To obtain a high-quality recorded image, many ink-jet recording sheets have been proposed for water-based ink which comprise a support consisting of a paper made of a bleached chemical pulp so as to enable a water-based ink delivered to the recording sheet to be rapidly absorbed in the thickness direction without spreading on the surface. Furthermore, provided on the surface of the support, an ink-receiving layer is formed from a composition comprising a pigment consisting mainly of synthetic silica particles, a water-based adhesive containing poly(vinyl alcohol) (including a silanol-modified poly(vinyl alcohol)), and an ink-setting agent comprising a cationic polymer (see, for example, JP-A-55-51683, JP-A-56-148586, JP-A-7-89216, and JP-A-7-89217). These ink-jet recording sheets have been put to practical use.
The ink-jet recording sheets described above have problems in that both the ink-receiving layer and the support made of a bleached chemical pulp absorb water. Thus, the recording sheets require a prolonged drying time after printing, and the resulting prints suffer from rumpling and curling.
To solve these problems, the use of a support has been proposed having a biaxially stretched poly(ethylene terephthalate) film (see JP-A-7-76162) or a synthetic paper consisting of a stretched resin film containing fine inorganic particles (see JP-A-7-89218 and JP-B-6-62003). Ink-jet recording sheets employing these supports have been put to practical use.
However, even in an ink-jet recording sheet employing the latter stretched film as a support, a further reduction in drying time is desired.
Moreover, the use of the prior art recording sheets, including ink-jet recording sheets, thermosensitive recording sheets, recording sheets for laser printing, and recording sheets for thermal transfer image reception, as posters and advertising leaflets after printing has the following problems. When such posters and leaflets are tacked on a board or hung, the recording sheets flutter in a strong wind and tear from the tack marks which form notches. In addition, the hanging leaflets which are fluttering in a wind may hitch on a nearby nail or wire to tear from the resulting scar which forms a notch.